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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) Says She Had A Great Call With Trump; California Passes 40,000 Death Toll As State Eases Restrictions; Johnson & Johnson To Submit FDA Application For Vaccine Next Week; FBI: Pipe Bombs Found Near Capitol Placed Night Before Capitol Riot; Arkansas Governor Calls For "Transparent" Trial For Trump; New Bodycam Video Shows Police Beaten By Mob During Riot; Alexie Navalny Calls On Biden To Sanction Putin Allies. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 30, 2021 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

We begin this hour with a fight underway for the soul of the Republican Party. The GOP must decide and fast who and what it wants to align with as pressure is mounting for freshman Georgia congresswoman and conspiracy theories Marjorie Taylor Greene to be expelled from Congress. This afternoon she is emboldened by former President Donald Trump and unapologetic tweeting she had a great call with Trump.

This is a sitting congresswoman with a history of dangerous and incendiary rhetoric, a history that includes repeatedly indicating support for the execution of prominent Democratic politicians and the former president who reportedly supports her. He is staring down a second impeachment trial for inciting a deadly insurrection at the nation's Capitol as officials warn of a heightened threat environment from domestic extremists, and yet he still wields incredible power over his party.

Let's go straight to Capitol Hill and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. Suzzane, tell us more about this call.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this call will be coming in the coming days. We don't know exactly when, but we do know, however, that the call -- at least the leadership call from the GOP with McCarthy has been canceled for Tuesday, and that, according to sources talking to CNN that, in part, because he's not quite ready to deal with or talk about the controversy regarding the lawmaker, Greene.

And so this is going to play out. This is going to take some time to play out. But make no mistake, Ana, you have Leader McCarthy, as well as Congresswoman Greene, both turning to the former president, President Trump, for support, wrapping themselves in a cloak of protection, if you will. It was just last week that we saw McCarthy at Mar-a-Lago with the president, both of them emerging with similar statements saying that they are ready to take back the House and the Senate, the Republicans, that this is really about empowering the party again.

And you also have Greene with her tweets today also feeling emboldened and empowered with by a phone call that she said she had with the president in which there is 100 percent loyalty on both sides that she was suggesting, her tweets saying she's not going to back down, never apologize and will always be fighting for the people. So that is her stand as well.

This is a fight that's playing out very publicly. It is also playing out privately among Republicans. Senator Mitt Romney tweeting today, lies of a feather flock together, Marjorie Taylor Greene's nonsense and the big lie of a stolen election.

And so, Ana, we will see just how far Republicans will go in their support of her or in rejecting her. We already have a pretty good sense of how people are aligning as they have moved closer to Trump, some people making their own political calculations and their re- election bids, others who are saying things in a more generic way, Representative Steve Scalise, for instance, from Louisiana, saying that he has consistently talked against this kind of violent rhetoric against politicians from both sides.

So you might hear those more generic statements, not pointing specifically at Congresswoman Greene but all over, essentially saying that the tone is toxic in Washington and that everybody has to tone it down, Ana.

CABRERA: And yet he seems to be accepting the fact that certain members of his party are being punished for voting to impeach President Trump, like Tom Rice in South Carolina or Liz Cheney, who had Matt Gaetz out in her home district campaigning against her. It's just really interesting to see the dynamics today, Suzanne Malveaux, more than a week after President Trump is no longer in office.

I want to bring former RNC Communications Director and CNN Political Commentator Doug Heye and CNN Political Commentator Amanda Carpenter, she is a Columnist at The Bulwark and was the former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz.

Doug, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she had a great call with Trump, that she has his support, that she isn't going to back down or apologize for her controversial remarks in the past, remarks that include repeatedly indicating support for the execution of politicians, that raised doubts about a school shooting that, at times, have been anti-Semitic and Islamophobic.

[15:05:13]

And yet, Doug, she is facing zero consequences. In fact, she's apparently being encouraged by the most powerful person in your party.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Unfortunately, what we've seen in Republican politics over the past four years, and even longer now, is that there is an incentive structure that rewards the crazy and rewards the dangerous. That's the election of Donald Trump, that's what we now see with the congresswoman, we see more from other members of Congress.

And what we know is, as we hear in horror movies, the call is coming from within the House, and it's coming just from one member of Congress but multiple members of Congress. And the leadership has to do something.

I can tell you, when you talk to most leadership offices, they use one word over and over again, and that's Kevin. They say it's Kevin's decision to make. And so we'll ultimately see what he does. The pressure under him is going to be enormous in part because he wants Donald Trump's support for the 2022 elections, that's a big reason why the members voted to challenge election results was to curry favor with Trump yet again.

But also there's a precedent that's been set with Steve King when they removed him from committees. They rendered basically, politically impotent and Steve King is no longer in Congress.

So we know what can be done. I sure hope House leadership does it.

CABRERA: I want to come back to Kevin McCarthy in just a moment. But, first, Amanda, let's just stick with Marjorie Taylor Greene in this moment and her spotlight currently, I want to remind our viewers about what Trump said about Marjorie Taylor Greene before she was elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Somebody that gets a little more publicity than I do, Marjorie Taylor Greene, right here from Northwest Georgia. Oh, boy, I don't want to mess with her. No, she's great. Every one of them has my full and complete endorsement, go out and vote for them and let them all come into Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: He got what he wished for and now Congresswoman Greene talks to Trump. She says she has his support today. I don't think you can call this the fringe of the Republican Party anymore, Amanda.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, but I think it's important we take a trip to realville where a lot of Republicans who still support Trump simply do not live anymore. New flash, there's a lot of people that cannot come to terms with this. Donald Trump not only lost the White House, he is responsible for losing the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Trumpism is a political loser, okay? Marjorie Taylor Greene and her QAnon-style politics are responsible for Republicans losing the Senate because Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue tried to ride that train and they went straight into the ground, okay?

So Kevin McCarthy --

CABRERA: But the House picked up seats.

CARPENTER: Yes, they picked up seats but they didn't take back the House. I mean, there's no Republican branch of Congress right now largely because of Donald Trump. And it's like the Republican Party is still living in this bubble where they're afraid of him and his tweets when he's not even on Twitter. Why is Kevin McCarthy going down and kissing the ring of Donald Trump? It's because they can't think of any other way.

You know what? People like Marjorie Taylor Greene are right, she and people like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are not compatible in the same party anymore. It is going to be us or them at this point. And maybe they take it over.

But you want to talk about cancel culture? They honor (ph) an admission to cancel the Republican Parthy, because this south politics, when you are coddling and enabling someone who harasses people who are victims of a mass shooting, American people, I have more faith in them than that, okay? That might be okay for Trump and to get clicks and to get famous online for all the wrong reasons, but that is not what the American people want, thank goodness.

CABRERA: And, Doug, you mentioned Steve King and how he was removed from a committee and yet we have Marjorie Taylor Greene being appointed to the House Education Committee, a woman, again, who has claimed that the Parkland School shooting was a false flag operation, who has harassed a survivor of that shooting and this is somebody Republicans want on Education Committee?

HEYE: I think the reality is they just didn't know when they were doing the slate -- how these happen in the House is basically every committee member is appointed at the same time. And so I don't think that they particularly carved her out on this one.

But what we know is we're going to get more comment like this from her as we go through things that she's posted and tweeted and said, there's going to be a lot more dangers there, a lot more crazy.

And to Amanda's point about this being a political loser, here is a real stark example. In North Carolina, my home state, in January, Republicans have lost 5,800 voters. 5,800 Republicans have gone to unaffiliated.

[15:10:00]

They're tired of what they've seen just this month. And if you're motivated do something politically in January of an off-year election, you would better believe it's going to be a real problem come 2022 for Republicans throughout the country if this is the road they continue to go down.

CABRERA: We've learned that Minority Leader McCarthy is planning to meet with Greene. We know this past week McCarthy met with Trump as well. Listen to how McCarthy has changed his tune on whether Trump bears any responsibility for the Capitol insurrection. First, here he is on January 13th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action of President Trump, accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: But then this from McCarthy on January 21st.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTHY: I don't believe he provoked if you listened to what he said at the rally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: And then this explanation that aired on january 24th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTHY: I thought the president had some responsibility when it came to the response. If you listen to what the president said at the rally, he said demonstrate peacefully. And then I got a question later about whether did he incite them.

I also think everybody across this country has some responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Amanda, is McCarthy the embodiment of the party's split personality right now?

CARPENTER: Well, I think there was a moment, right, where people like Kevin McCarthy, even Nikki Haley, Mitch McConnell wanted to get their respective caucuses to go in the direction of perhaps putting an end to the Trump era. But then they got the brush back pitch. They heard from voters and the Trump base is still much more enthused and activated than maybe you want to call it the normal wing or the regular people. But this is just a fact of life.

And leadership requires a sustained effort to move the party in the right direction and they just simply are not capable of doing it, right, because it requires hard choices and doing tough things and taking criticism and they just refuse to lay that groundwork and stay firm. They are being rolled.

CABRERA: There are these little pops of people trying to show that leadership that you speak of. We learned former Republican President George W. Bush is planning to call his former vice president, Dick Cheney, today to wish him a happy 80th birthday and thank him for his daughter's service, Dick Cheney's daughter, as you know, is Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who has been under attack by members of the GOP for the voting to impeach Trump.

But, Doug, the fact Bush wants it to be known where his support lies, should he be calling McCarthy instead?

HEYE: Well, I'm encouraged the former president call anybody who wants to to spread that message, because it's something that Republicans need to hear from as many voices as they can. As Amanda referenced, the voices from the Trump crowd are loud and they are frequent. You can't not hear that.

So it's important for folks who feel the other way to speak loudly, to speak to those in charge, especially in the House of Representatives. Because what we know is that if some kind of action isn't taken, more people are going to be hurt.

My biggest fear, we've all talked about this, of the Trump era, was that somebody was going to get hurt. That's obviously what happened on January 6th. And we know that that can happen again. And this time or next time, it may be a member of Congress.

And when you talk about Steve Scalise, he has experienced this personally, and as did so many other people who were at that baseball practice, obviously, and Gabby Giffords as well. Our violent rhetoric is out of control and leadership needs to put do something to put a stop to it.

CABRERA: Doug Heye and Amanda Carpenter, I appreciate your perspectives. Thanks for being with us.

HEYE: Thank you.

CABRERA: Next week, Johnson & Johnson will ask the FDA to authorize its vaccine for emergency use. What this will mean for the nation's vaccine supply, that's next.

But, first, a quick programming note, join Anderson Cooper for a look at the origins of the QAnon conspiracy theory, how did this fringe theory become a movement that includes members of Congress, what role did it play in the Capitol insurrection. The CNN special report, Inside the QAnon Conspiracy, airs tonight at 9:00 Eastern here on CNN.

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CABRERA: Just moments ago, the United States passed 26 million confirmed coronavirus cases. California has been hit especially hard by the pandemic. More than 40,000 people in that state alone have now lost their battle with coronavirus.

California now only trails New York in the number of COVID deaths. This as Los Angeles County, California's largest county by population, signaled yesterday that it may reopen outdoor dining at 50 percent capacity.

CNN's Paul Vercammen joins us now. Paul, the state is moving towards relaxing restrictions, while just yesterday, more than 660 residents died? PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Ana, and it's a great debate in the state, how do you protect people but get these businesses going? Something like almost two million people in California work in the food services industry and just opening right here, Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks.

And you can see the new rules in effect. Tables must be eight feet apart, no more than six people at a table. They are not to be from the same household but what is frustrating a lot of restaurant owners is they will not allow televisions outside and this is just ahead of the Super Bowl.

Here's Angela Marsden. She owns this establishment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA MARSDEN, OWNER, PINEAPPLE HILL SALOON AND GRILL: If you put people out of safe spaces for Super Bowl, you are putting them literally in danger and putting them into homes and house parties, which will take place. I mean, New Years Eve day, I was at Ralph's, the longest line I've ever seen.

[15:20:03]

People buying cases of beer, stuff for New Year's, because they were not just isolating with their family members, every single person staying at home.

So, please, have some common sense. Let us use the T.V.s. Give us the chance to keep people safe and give them a little bit of community because that's what people need right now. And I don't know what else to do, other than get on my knees than just pray or beg, let's use some common sense here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: Now, while this restaurant reopened, a lot of restaurants in Los Angeles not opening, dozens telling me they are waiting. This is Casa Vega. It's tradition-rich. It's just down this street from here. It has a loyal clientele. But they are not going to open, for example, until February 22nd. Many restaurant owners saying that the rules are so intense, they just couldn't make the adjustment to them in time to reopen for this weekend.

Reporting live from Sherman Oaks, I'm Paul Vercammen, back to you now, Ana.

CABRERA: Okay, Paul, thank you.

Now, it is a race to get people vaccinated. More than 27 million vaccine doses administered so far across the country, that's just over half of the more than 49 million total doses that have been sent to states so far.

Johnson & Johnson says it will apply to the FDA next week for emergency use authorization for its single-shot vaccine. The company says its vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing the disease in a global phase three trial and, perhaps most importantly, 85 percent effective at preventing severe disease.

I want to bring in infectious disease expert Dr. Celine Gounder. She was a member of the Biden-Harris transition COVID advisory board and is the former New York City assistant city health commissioner.

Doctor, if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does get this emergency use authorization, how much of a game changer would that be for vaccine supply issues here in the U.S.?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST AND EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Ana, the original two vaccines, the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine, where we've been promised 300 million doses by the end of this summer to the United States alone. So, because those are two-shot vaccines ,you're looking at 150 million people that could be vaccinated with those.

Johnson & Johnson has promised an additional 100 million doses by the end of June. And because that's a one-shot vaccine, that's 100 million people. So, you're talking about potentially 250 million people that could be vaccinated with this vaccine supply of three vaccines. That's actually getting us close to the targets where we would be potentially reaching herd immunity.

CABRERA: But the Johnson & Johnson efficacy, as we mentioned, is a bit lower than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine. So do you think should different groups be prioritized for different vaccines?

GOUNDER: Ana, I think people are slightly losing the forest through the trees here. I think if you look at the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it prevents 100 percent of deaths, it prevents 85 percent of severe disease. So, a vaccine that is that good at preventing hospitalizations and death, that's pretty good.

So, I think, big picture, everybody should be getting whatever vaccine is most easily available to them, and I think some of this will come down to logistics, what are vaccines that are easier to get to some places where you don't have the deep freeze capacity that the Pfizer vaccine, for example, requires who might be easier to reach in mass vaccination centers with just one dose versus having to have people come back twice. So I think it's really going to come down to logistics. And my message to people out there listening is get whatever vaccine is easily available to you.

CABRERA: Isn't it human nature though to want the best vaccine with the highest rates of success, like Moderna and Pfizer? What if people choose not to get the Johnson & Johnson if available and wait for Moderna or Pfizer?

GOUNDER: Well, then you're potentially putting yourself at risk, unnecessary risk, because you're much better off getting vaccinated with any of the three, whether it's Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson than waiting for one of these down the line.

And the fact is you probably -- we probably will be giving booster shots in six months, a year, as the variants continue to mutate and we have to adjust the vaccines for that.

So my message would be, get what you can now and worry about maybe getting one of these others down the line later.

CABRERA: Let's talk more about variants. The strain first identified in South Africa was just found in Maryland, it's also been found in South Carolina. Here is incoming Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: We are in a race against the variants right now. The faster we're able to reduce overall rates of infection by taking the public health measures, like masking and distancing, the faster we're able to vaccinate people, the sooner we'll be able to turn this pandemic around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:25:00]

CABRERA: He says we're in a race against the variants. Doctor, how is the U.S. doing right now in that race?

GOUNDER: Well, so far, we're not doing all that well. The reason you see variants arise is because every time the virus spreads from person to another, it has the opportunity to mutate. So the more it transmits, the more it spreads, the more it mutates.

And it's no coincidence that these variants have arisen in the countries that have done the least well at mitigation measures, like the masking and social distancing and so on. These are variants that have arisen in the United Kingdom and South Africa and Brazil, as well as here in the United States. And it's because we haven't done what we needed to do to prevent transmission.

So, in the race against the virus, we have to keep doubling down on all of the things we've been talking about for months, in addition to accelerating the vaccine rollout.

CABRERA: Should people in the U.S. who test positive for COVID-19 be able to learn whether it's the original virus or a variant?

GOUNDER: So this is something that the CDC and others are trying to scale up right now. Unfortunately, in the past, we have really underinvested in our public health systems, including our public health labs, bioinformatics, the very tools we need to do this kind of surveillance.

And so this is something that we are trying to scale up capacity for right now so that if people do test positive for COVID, we can try to figure out is this one of the variants. It's not just for that person. It's really for broader public health measures to make sure we're doing the right thing from a public health perspective.

CABRERA: Thank you for all that great information, Dr. Celine Gounder, we appreciate it and we appreciate you. Meantime, we're learning more today about the U.S. response in the early months of the pandemic. A new government watchdog report reveals the Trump administration spent $200 million last summer sending thousands of ventilators to various countries but now many of those ventilators can no longer be found.

According to this report between last May and September, the U.S. donated more than 8,700 ventilators to 43 different countries with no clear criteria for determining which countries actually needed these ventilators or how many to send. In some instances, the life-saving machines went to countries that were reporting zero new cases per day.

This happened despite the watchdog finding that the agency in charge did have funding to track the ventilators long-term.

Coming up, new details about the Capitol insurrection, the FBI now revealing pipe bombs found on the day of the attack were actually planted the night before. Could this detail impact the impeachment trial considering Democrats are arguing President Donald Trump incited the mob? We'll ask two attorneys, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:18]

CABRERA: There are approximately 175 known defendants facing charges right now related to the capitol riot on January 6th.

But the FBI is still searching for many more, including the person who placed pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters.

The bureau has now increased the reward, offering up to $100,000 for help tracking down the person or people responsible.

The bombs were discovered on January 6th, but the FBI now tells us they were placed the night before the riot.

With us now, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst, Jennifer Rodgers, and CNN legal analyst, Ross Garber. He teaches political investigations and impeachment law at Tulane Law School and previously represented four governors facing impeachment proceedings.

Jennifer, as we learn more about the planning that happened in advance of the insurrection on January 6th, does that affect the argument that Trump incited the mob?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it does, Ana. And it's going to be very interesting to see what the House managers are able to make of this evidence.

We know there's plenty in terms of video of what happened January 6th. And of course, President Donald Trump's statements leading up to that day and on that day.

The question is: What will they be able to put in about what these groups were planning in terms of violence and the insurrection itself? And what if any coordination might there have been between these people and the White House and the Trump campaign?

Some evidence is coming out that there was coordination and actually help with the planning. And if the House managers are able to harness that evidence, I think that's going to be very powerful for the Senate trial.

CABRERA: Ross, take a listen to what Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson said about the Senate impeachment trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): I'm very interested as to how the Senate is going to proceed with the trial because the level of responsibility is the issue. So much to what extent are they going to delve into that level of responsibility in the Senate?

But it also falls on the president and his defense team to articulate where the responsibility lies. Is that going to be done by witnesses, by depositions, summaries from the FBI? That's going to be interesting.

And if I'm a member of the Senate, I would say, I want to hear all of that evidence, make an appropriate judgment. And the American people will, too, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Ross, how important is it to lay out all the evidence during this trial, as if it were a brand-new case?

ROSS GARBER, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, it's interesting. In most impeachment trials on the federal level, they mostly involve judges.

And they've looked like trials that we've seen, you know, either in a courtroom or we've seen on TV. They look like real trials with real witnesses and real presentations.

[15:35:02]

But interestingly, the last presidential impeachments, Clinton and the first Trump trial, didn't have live witnesses.

This trial, it's going to be a big question. Last time the Republicans blocked witnesses. This time, they can't do that.

I think, if the objective is to convict the president. That's going to mean changing a lot of minds, a lot of Senators' minds and a lot of American citizens' minds. That's going to take actual witnesses, actual testimony, actual evidence.

CABRERA: And so when you think about that, it's how do you change minds. How do you convince somebody to do something that they weren't initially planning to do? Jennifer, "The Washington Post" is reporting that, in the day after

this attack, where Trump supporters were chanting "Hang Mike Pence," RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called Pence and fought back tears.

It just reminds, in the days immediately following this attack were really filled with emotion.

And we are still seeing new video from this riot. And I want to play a part of it.

I want to warn our viewers that the video is violent. It's disturbing. It shows rioters brutally attacking police through the view of a bodycam from a D.C. metro police officer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Being so close to that violence, as you watch that video, how can anyone not be emotionally impacted?

In the impeachment trial, the Democrats' goal is to convince some Republican Senators to vote for conviction.

Jennifer, do you think it's more effective to do that through facts or through emotion?

RODGERS: You have to do it through facts, of course, because that's the process. But you can't really leave emotion totally out of it.

We all watched this happen in real time. And the Senators were living it because they were in the building at the time. They're not really going to be able to divorce themselves.

But I do think what's really going to make the difference -- and this is along the lines of what Ross was saying. They're going to have to show there wasn't just a violent mob that got stirred up and ran to the capitol and did what they did.

But that Trump himself, because he's the one on trial, is the one that incited this and knew this was the logical conclusion of what he was telling them to do.

It's really important in all of that, not just that it happened, but that he expected it to happen.

They're really going to need to bring in this evidence about coordination, about the drum beat of information that he was putting into all these people's heads over the months, and then his actions on that day.

And I really do hope to see some witnesses who talk to us about what Trump was doing when he was sitting there watching TV, seeing these violent acts play out right in front of him. And why he was not at that time getting on Twitter and doing videos and saying, immediately stop this, go home, this is not what we should be doing. It took him a long time to do that and, even so, it was very tepid.

I really would like to see evidence of that. Because I think that is going it be critical in proving his actual culpability, not just the culpability of the people who ransacked the capitol.

CABRERA: So far as the timeline, how long this trial might last, many Democrats are signaling they want it to be relatively short. You'll recall the first trial for impeachment of Trump was 21 days.

We're hearing from Senators like Richard Blumenthal that the trial could be expeditious this time, a matter of days, not weeks.

Does that make sense to you, Ross?

GARBER: Yes. Here's the problem -- Jennifer is exactly right. I've been on this page since the beginning.

That is going to take a lot of new information. It's going to take subpoenas, probably going to mean fighting about subpoenas. It would need a lot of witnesses and a lot of new information. That is not a quick process.

And I have my doubt that Senate Democrats are going to have much patience for a long, drawn-out, distracting process.

They have to decide, are they going to bring all that in, are they going to have this kind of full exposition of the issues, or especially since it looks like acquittal is probably a forgone conclusion, are they going to try to slam it through and get it done?

This is a decision that's fully in the hands of the Senate Democrats.

CABRERA: And February 9th is when it's all going to get under way. We'll be able to know the answer then.

Thank you, Ross Garber, Jennifer Rodgers. I appreciate both of you very much.

In prison, Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, is calling on President Biden for help today. We'll have a live report from Moscow right after this.

[15:40:02]

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back.

As Russia braces for yet another weekend of potential unrest, Alexei Navalny is calling on the U.S. for help. The Russian opposition leader's foundation is asking President Biden to impose sanction on some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies.

Navalny remains under house arrest as his supporters plan to protest again this weekend. Actually, he's under arrest, not house arrest. Last weekend, tens of thousands braved frigid temperatures to demand Navalny's release.

CNN Senior International Correspondent, Matthew Chance, is joining us from Moscow.

Matthew, Navalny's foundation sent this letter to the Biden administration. Tell us more about it.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that's just on the eve of these protests that are expected to take place across the country in possibly more than a hundred cities.

Where tens of thousands of people are expected to come out to voice their opposition to the continuing detention of Alexei Navalny and to call for his release, something authorities have showed absolutely no sign of doing.

[15:45:09]

Well, within the past 48 hours, we're learned this letter was sent directly from Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption group to President Biden, calling on his administration to sanction 35 people close to Vladimir Putin with tough sanctions to make them feel the consequential of this continued action, continued pressure against them.

And pointing out there were eight people that it said were on a priority list. Those people including Roman Abramovich, a billionaire oligarch.

He's the owner of Chelsea Football Club in Britain. But his has massive other business interests elsewhere. The letter calls a key enabler and a beneficiary of what it says is the Kremlin kleptocracy.

And another person mentioned and called sanctions upon is Mikhail Murashko, who is the Russian health minister.

Navalny's team saying he actually prevented or hindered the evacuation of Alexei Navalny last year to Germany to get treatment after he was poisoned horrifically with that suspected nerve agent.

We haven't heard anything yet from the Biden administration. But certainly, eyes around the world in the U.S. and elsewhere as well, are watching what unfolds here with in the next 24 hours.

Because, as I say, in just a few hours from now, in the morning here, on Sunday morning local time, there will be these widespread protests across the country.

CABRERA: Matthew Chance, thank you.

A notorious and anonymous pro-Trump Twitter troll has just been unmasked. His identity might surprise you. That's next, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:08]

CABRERA: He grew up in an upper middle-class family, was a high school athlete. And after college, he landed a financial job in New York City.

So how did he become one of the more notorious Trump online trolls spreading disinformation?

Here's CNN's Donie O'Sullivan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): An anonymous pro-Trump Twitter troll unmasked, charged with interference in the 2016 presidential election.

LUKE O'BRIEN, SENIOR REPORTER, "HUFFINGTON POST": This was an attack on our democracy, and you could look at him as almost like a field commander in this longstanding assault on our democracy.

SULLIVAN (voice-over): Federal prosecutors say that Douglass Mackey, who used the online alias Ricky Vaughn, was arrested Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Luke O'Brien, a reporter from the "Huffington Post," helped unmask Mackey in 2018.

O'BRIEN: Douglass Mackey seemed like a very average, normal, upper middle-class kid, who grew up in a small town in Vermont and ran track in high school.

And then he went to Middlebury College where he also ran track for a year. He graduated from college in 2011. And he moved to New York, and he took a job in the financial industry.

At some point, he was working for an economic consulting firm. He was fired from his job. And then he reinvented himself as one of the worst white nationalist trolls on Twitter during the 2016 election.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): According to charging documents, Mackey is accused of conspiring to suppress votes and using social media to spread disinformation, telling African American voters they could vote for Hillary Clinton by texts.

That same tweet, specifically, referenced during a 2017 Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Minnesota's Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar displayed a blown-up image of the tweet from a fake account.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Some of the ads have been discussed containing misinformation, telling voters that they could vote online, which, of course, wasn't true.

In fact, here's one of them, targeted of course, telling people that they could just text Hillary to that number, and that's how they vote.

I just want people to understand what this is. Efforts like this are actually criminal. They are illegal.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): A similar tweet targeted Hispanic voters.

Ben Nimmo is the head of investigations at Graphika, a company that analyses the spread of disinformation on social media.

BEN NIMMO, HEAD OF INVESTIGATIONS, GRAPHIKA: It's a kind of thing where particularly in a tight race, it can make a difference, if it reaches enough people.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Prosecutors say nearly 5,000 people responded to the fraudulent text code, allegedly distributed by Mackey.

NIMMO: If you conclude that all of those were people who were trying to vote and people who didn't actually go and vote in person, that is 4,900 votes that have just been suppressed.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Mackey's alleged co-conspirators are not named in the complaint. But Twitter data, shared by authorities, suggests at least one of the apparent co-conspirators has been charged for their involvement in the January 6th insurrection.

O'BRIEN: You can draw a through-line from that to what happened. You had a lot of these people, Trump supporters who have been sucking down propaganda and disinformation for years, spread by many of the same people, attack our Capitol.

(SHOUTING)

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): CNN reached out to Mackey's lawyers for comment.

Just like many of the insurrectionists we saw on January 6th in Washington, D.C., many online trolls think they can post online disinformation and hate without any consequences.

That they can use the cloak of anonymity online to never be caught and never be held accountable for their actions.

With this case, of course, that may send a message that all is about to change.

Back to you.

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[15:55:02]

CABRERA: Donie O'Sullivan, thank you.

Join Fareed Zakaria for an in-depth look at American political hatred. How did it get so bad? This Fareed Zakaria special, "THE DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA: WHAT IS TEARING US APART?," airs tomorrow night at 9:00.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we're witnessing a battle for the soul of the Republican Party. Who has more pull, conspiracy theorist, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, or former Republican presidential candidate, Senator Mitt Romney? We'll go live to the Capitol Hill. next.

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[16:00:02]

CABRERA: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

We begin this hour with the Republican Party facing an identity crisis in the post-Trump era.